Story Aesthetics Vs Lessons Learned Essay

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Good vs. Bad

The idea of a "good guy" versus a "bad guy" (or either type of girl in many stories" is an idea that is firmly defined and used in many stories. Beyond that, there are some fairly common themes about who tends to be good and who tends to be bad just based on demographical and other similar information such as gender, race, sexuality, class and so forth. On top of that, there are many characters that portend to be good but they are really bad and there yet other characters that can be deemed good or bad (potentially or in actuality) based on the same traits that are known to all people that can end up making either assessment. Indeed, stories like Robin Hood and others lead to exceedingly different conclusions about the motivations and moral code of the characters involved. This brief essay shall focus on Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb. Both stories may tend to be very clear-cut to many people but there are elements in both stories that lead to some variances and differences in opinion. While Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood are both commonly held to be "good" characters, there are some notable ways in which some people openly disagree with such assertions.

Analysis

Before getting too deeply into the nuts and bolts of the two stories being focused on in this report, one should look at the common traits of characters and how they tend to skew and shape the perceptions of the reader of the story. This can hold true of children and adults alike. First of all, both Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood are stories that are often "clean up" and "sanitized" so that young children reading the story are not exposed to certain elements. Indeed, what specifically happens to the wolf and/or the grandmother of Red Riding Hood differs based on version and there are elements of Tom Thumb that are altered and toyed with also.

However, there are things that one could look at beyond that. Indeed, who is good and bad often centers on gender, race, sexuality and class. Women are generally (but not always) good characters while men, when human villains are present, tend to be the bad people. There are exceptions, of course. While all of the women in Red Riding Hood are good, those being the Grandmother, Red Riding Hood and Red Riding Hood's mother are all with obvious good intentions and/or are vulnerable. Red Riding Hood is told to stay only on the path due to the dangers that could present themselves. The grandmother is a vulnerable woman of no evil intent who gets victimized by the wolf as a means for the latter to get at the young girl. The mother of Red Riding Hood. In other stories, women can absolutely be the victim but it is usually painful obvious and there is little left to the imagination. A common vehicle for this is the witch, as found in many stories in both children's and adult literature.

Class is also another common vehicle. Many times, the poor tend to get a more sympathetic position while it is much more likely that the rich and powerful will get the "evil" moniker. Indeed, when the non-rich are the bad guys, their wealth (or lack thereof) seems to not be the main focus. In Tom Thumb, he is often portrayed as being a friend of King Arthur, who is commonly held to be a good man. Even so, some iterations of Tom Thumb have Tom having a rather vulgar way of speaking and this is one of those things that is sanitized out of many versions of his stories depending on the publication. Certainly, a child's version of these stories would not have the "dirty" words. Vulgar words are often deemed to be spoken by the lesser educated and the "bad" people of many forms so it is not all that common in literature to see glowingly "good" people to speak in this manner. Modern entertainment options have thrown that idea on its head as the good characters often cuss and make crude remarks all of the time but literature, classic literature in particular, has tended to be a bit different. Further, many cultures tend to shield the young from such words. Content is also a key in that the fate of the grandmother is entirely different based on which version of Red Riding Hood is being read. In some cases, the grandmother is eaten (albeit whole) by the wolf while she is simply forced into the closet in other versions.

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One vehicle of literature that is used beautifully in Red Riding Hood is the idea of the evil double. The author of this response is aware that another word used for this plot tool is "doppleganger." Indeed, Red Riding Hood is told to stay on the path and she basically does just that. She arrives at her grandmother's house as planned and still almost falls victim to the plot of the wolf who is posing as the grandmother. The little girl catches on to the ruse fairly early on and she is saved by the woodcutter. Indeed, this part of the plot is the climax of the wider point that is driven home by the author. Given more modern events that are widely publicized, the "lessons" to learn from this story grow more numerous by the day. One lesson that can be learned is that young people eventually have to go out on their own and face the dangers that exist out there. Second, some of the dangers that exist can come from seemingly "safe" and familiar forces. Third, one could compare the wolf disguised as the grandmother being a true supposed ally and friend of the person that turns against the granddaughter. The wolf also premediates the deception by inquiring about where the grandmother is. As noted on page 52, the wolf asks "does she live a great way off" and this leads Red Riding Hood to reply by saying "she lives in a pretty cottage in the wood, just before you get to the next village. Fourth, there could be the broader point that the world is full of predators and that people, even little girls, must be aware of this. Indeed, taking this story literally would boggle the mind as sending a girl out on her own in such a potentially dangerous situation would be unthinkable given some of the threats and such that exist today. However, taking the story literally is not the right way to approach this. Indeed, this is a textbook example of didacticism versus aesthetics. The story itself is a way to make the story approachable because literally telling the children in text form what the point is (didacticism) would be a turn-off to many children and the parents that would have them read the story. There is something to the idea of teaching lessons like this but there has to be a vehicle (the aesthetic part) that makes the point rather than proverbially smacking the kid over the head with the idea.

Further, the pedagogical strategies taken by this story are fairly obvious. Little Red Riding Hood is clearly the vulnerable and naive little girl that is wandering out amongst the wolves, both proverbially and literally in her case. The mother is the one that tries to teach her that staying on the path is the required and wise course. However, the girl does mostly that and still almost ends up in trouble. As noted on page 54, a trio of woodcutters save the day but the mother's advice turns out to be a day late and a dollar short as the girl would have surely died were it not for the woodcutters. She was lucky in that, as the book says, the wolf was "no match for three strong men." An obvious lesson of this story development is that predators and people trying to take advantage of you are not always obvious and apparent. Sometimes they come from likely sources but sometimes they are much subtler and more deceptive. Rather than just attack her on the path (which the wolf had every chance to do), the wolf hatches a plot to catch her at her most vulnerable. A lot of what is being said about Little Red Riding Hood could be said about Tom Thumb. Similar to Red Riding Hood, he is a vulnerable boy who is constantly being taken advantage of and victimized. However, the portrayal of Tom Thumb is much more mixed because engages in tricks and gambits that turn off other people from him as they are not fond of his trickery and thievery. Unlike Red Riding Hood, Tom's eventual fate is much sadder even as he more or less redeems himself but still keeps getting into trouble of some sort despite his behavioral changes. Like Red Riding Hood, he was vulnerable due to his size.….....

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